#1. The term is for six months with an option for an additional six months,commencing 1st July 2016.

#2. You will be required to create one layout per month and assist with commenting and voting duties.

#3. You must have the ability to take great photos and have

strong photo editing skills.

#4. You must have an active blog and be active on

various social media, especially Facebook.

HOW TO APPLY

Send us...*** Three recent layouts that show us your style & skill. *** Links to your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram,You Tube etc.*** A short biographyincluding your name, where you live,what DT's you are currently on & when they are due tofinish & what experience you have in general.

cards, tags and ATCs only. (ATCs, or Artist Trading Cards, are small works of art, about 2.5 by 3.5 inches or 64 x 89mm).This challenge requires you to use a specific word on your project. We must see the actual word. You have only one week - until the last day of the month - to enter, so be quick!

16 April, 2016

Oh, do we have a special treat for you this month in our Special Guest Spotlight!!

You have no doubt seen this very talented lady's name and beautiful creations before! Athanasia is a true artist and we are so thrilled to have her join us this month in inspiring you to play along with our ESCAPE & MOOD PHOTO challenge.

"Hello! Thank you so much for the invitation. It is really a great honour for me to be here with you today! My name is Athanasia which means 'immortality' in Greek. As a musician, I love all kinds of arts. When I am not playing the piano, I find myself at my scrappy desk making art journal pages, layouts, canvases, tags, ATCs, altered objects and more. I get inspiration from almost everything like colours, nature, flavours and smells and of course my music! I like the vintage look as much as a more modern style, which depends on my mood. I love the limitless choices and combinations of mixed media techniques, not only for documenting memories of my life and my family, but also for expressing emotions and ideas that I have in my head that must come out. I currently design for Finnabair, ColourArte, 2Crafty Chipboard. I enjoy making videos and I hope that I will inspire you with my projects!"

We urge you to go see more of Athanasia's creations as they are absolutely amazing!

Let's take a look at this month's challenge followed by Athanasia's interpretation.

Athanasia shares this about her magnificent project:

"I decided to create a canvas inspired by the lovely April challenge board and using the word ESCAPE on it. I got inspired not only by the beautiful colours of the MOOD PHOTO, but also the flowers and the black and white tree and I tried to incorporate all these elements on my project. I therefore used flowers in many colours, a chipboard tree which I painted black and white, wooden sticks as well as a keyhole out of which all the flowers escape."

We can all hear you gasping for breath at the beauty of this canvas and you no doubt want to see more! Well, Athanasia has also provided us with a videoto see her creative process and learn more about all the products and fun techniques she used.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

And here are a few close-ups...

It is absolutely brilliant to make the flowers peek through the rusty metal keyhole, as to represent the beauty of nature escaping from an enclosed secret garden.

Athanasia used many mixed media techniques on her canvas to make the background crackle and shimmer, layers upon layers of different colours and products to add depth and texture.

A masterpiece through and through!

Thank you so much Athanasia for joining us this month as our Special Guest!

MYSTERY WINNERJACQUI HUNT(entry #11)"First of all, Jacqui's layout is super pretty with a beautiful blue and
yellow palette and awesome stencilled gesso on her background. What
caught our eye especially is the fact that Jacqui's page is about her
daughter whose nickname, she explains, has been Miss Blissy since she
was a toddler! How truly special is that?"

We would like to encourage our merit winners, honourable mentions as well as participants who have had your project featured on our Facebook page to grab your badge from our left sidebar and proudly display it on your blog!

They were made just for you!

Thank you so much to all who have participated!

You are all winners in our eyes and we wish we could award each of you a prize.

01 April, 2016

Our Main Challenge is based on a Word Inspiration & a Creative Challenge.

This challenge is open to layouts, canvases and art journal pages only.

Word Inspiration - ESCAPE

Creative Challenge - MOOD PHOTO

Use the word ESCAPE as inspiration for your project. You can choose the add the word somewhere on your project or simply be inspired to create from it. Please explain in your blog post how the word inspired you, if it's not obvious.

Our creative challenge this month is a MOOD PHOTO. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so for this challenge we offer you not just one word as inspiration, but a thousand with this image! You can use any part of the scene as inspiration - rainbow, tree, white 'frosted' leaves, sky, horizon, fields, wild flowers, grass texture, birds, swirling smoky clouds, etc. Show us how it inspires you!

VERY IMPORTANT! You have to incorporate both parts of the challenge, the word inspiration and the creative challenge, on your project to be eligible to win. When we vote, we specifically look for projects that display BOTH requirements, and not just the creative challenge. Just look at our DT members' interpretation as example.

Remember that you must include our board image and a link to our blog in your entry post. Please check out our RULES!

Rachael: "Once again, I have used the word inspiration in my title 'ESCAPE'. The colours in the rainbow was the first thing that stood out for me from the MOOD PHOTO. The bold black from the tree trunk also grabbed my attention so I added some black stamping and accents on my page."

Kareen: "The word ESCAPE inspired me to scrap a picture of my little goddaughter because when I am with her, it's like an escape from the adult world. I think it's pretty clear how I've been inspired by the MOOD PHOTO. The colour palette was my first inspiration, and you can see that I have created my background to mimick the same shades of colours as in the sky of the photo."

Julia: "The word ESCAPE inspired me to make a page with a picture from our holidays in Cyprus. Here we escaped for the whole day away from civilization. We biked along deserted spots where there is only boundless horizon, blue sky with little clouds, along with stone fields... all included in the MOOD PHOTO."

Valia: "My wish for my youngest boy is to ESCAPE the boring reality, dare to dream big and chase his dreams and to live life to its fullest. The MOOD PHOTO inspired me to use some bright colours which is not usual for me. The trunk of the tree inspired me to also use lots of black colour."

Nicole: "I used the word ESCAPE in my title and found a nice quote to go along with this sweet picture of my niece Ella taking a little break from a day of fun at the park to daydream at the bottom of the slide. There were many elements from the MOOD PHOTO that inspired me, but my main focus was to try and reproduce the same colour palette. So I played with my purple, blue and pink mists with a touch of gold to create my background, and then followed suit with my embellishments. I also added flowers and frosted my entire layout with touches of white paint

Helen: "For me, ESCAPE means only one thing... traveling! I used two photos of me and my husband from a trip to a lake in northern Greece. I added the birds, inspired by the ones in the MOOD PHOTO as they are a symbol of freedom and traveling."

Elena: "My layout is about our ESCAPE from the big city in a fairy tale like setting... to the sea coast! It was a big adventure filled with bright colours and positive emotions just like the MOOD PHOTO makes me feel!"

Arantzazu: "When I read the word ESCAPE, the first thing that came to my mind was the plight of the refugees who have had to flee from their hometowns in search of hope. The MOOD PHOTO to me displays a land of hope. I have used the colour palette that appears in that peaceful scenery."

Lilibleu: "I took this picture of my little guys in front of a Winter sea during one of our breaks at Les Saintes Maries De La Mer (a French seaside town) when the day was particularly sunny. I mainly picked the birds and the flowers

Valérie: "The word ESCAPE was my main inspiration. I tried to illustrate how it feels when we pass some time in the woods to escape from our everyday life. You will find on my page the same colours as in the MOOD PHOTO

Heather: "My inspiration for this layout came from the word ESCAPE and the wide open spaces of the MOOD PHOTO. I felt that you can't really escape much further into wide open spaces than in outback Australia! My brother works in stunning remote areas like these and I love this photo that he took

while driving between destinations one day."

We hope that you are inspired by all these beautiful creations from our DT!

"2Crafty is an Australian wholesale manufacture of laser cut chipboard, with thousands of designs, diverse in nature and always up to date with market trends. We pride ourselves on our reliable and quick turnaround of jobs, both large and small, and high quality products as well as unbeatable customer service. We cater to both local and international markets and are happy to quote on personalized jobs, whether it be a single title for a customer or large jobs for retreats, classes, etc."

Each month we hand pick a winner from all participants who have not made it to our TOP 5, but who has captured our attention someway, somehow. We might pick a project due to its original use of a certain product, the cleverest title, most beautiful photo, etc. Who knows what we will be looking for?